The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: what I should make use of now, That the peace of Utrecht was within an ace
of creating the same shyness betwixt my uncle Toby and his hobby-horse, as
it did betwixt the queen and the rest of the confederating powers.
There is an indignant way in which a man sometimes dismounts his horse,
which, as good as says to him, 'I'll go afoot, Sir, all the days of my life
before I would ride a single mile upon your back again.' Now my uncle Toby
could not be said to dismount his horse in this manner; for in strictness
of language, he could not be said to dismount his horse at all--his horse
rather flung him--and somewhat viciously, which made my uncle Toby take it
ten times more unkindly. Let this matter be settled by state-jockies as
they like.--It created, I say, a sort of shyness betwixt my uncle Toby and
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